Designers and builders of sailing yachts greater than 100 feet (30.4 meters) are being tasked with creating vessels that not only are beautiful, comfortable and safe, but also achieve a high level of sailing performance. The proliferation of international superyacht regattas has upped the ante for owners who not only like their yachts luxurious, but also like to best their competition on the race course.

Benetti Yachts asked nearly 20 international design firms, including established designers and a few new to the industry, to develop superyacht projects in the 50- to 90-plus-meter range and explore the idea of the yacht of the future. Below are the designs contributed by Nauta Yachts.

Mario Pedol is a soft-spoken man not normally given to exclamations of flash and wow. But the recent news that Nauta Yachts was the designer of the 590-foot (180-meter) yacht Azzam, currently under construction at Lürssen, generated quite a buzz. Azzam, a long-time secret project, is believed to be 57 feet 4 inches (17.5 meters) longer than Eclipse, currently the world’s largest yacht.